Ashes of Revenge

Chapter 28: Land of the Living

"Richard! Colt!" Raven screamed as she ran. "RICHARD! COLT! HELP!!"

Her breath had left her body. Her legs were about to give out. A side-stitch felt like a knife in her lungs. Her entire body was in pain.

Despite everything, she ran.

An obsidian void surrounded her. The only other color came from an orange and red moving glow behind her: fire.

Raven slid to a stop when the fire suddenly came out of the ground in front of her, lunging far over her head and blocking any means of escape. It descended. Right as the flame attached to her body and pain engulfed her, the floor beneath her gave way.

Water encased her. Raven tried to find a way to escape, but a clear floor was over it. Her fists and feet collided with the surface, but it didn't so much as budge. A sharp pain shot through her chest, freezing her instantly. A sword was coming through the clear ceiling and impaling her.

The last of her air escaped her mouth, and she floated down – blood circling her body. Her body descended onto another clear surface in the water, stopping her.

The water drained, and Raven remained motionless.

Water spurted from her mouth as she sat up, back in the black void. The hole in her chest gone.

A crackling noise made her slowly turn around. Her eyes widened when she saw fire feet away from her. She began to run.

"Richard! Colt!" Raven screamed as she ran. "RICHARD! COLT! HELP!!"

A dark figure appeared in front of Raven. Before she could stop herself, she collided with the figure, who grabbed her face and forced her to look into his onyx eyes. A grin began to etch itself onto his lips – the complete opposite of Raven's horrified, animalistic features.

"Hello, my dear." Raven shook her head in fear as she mumbled Colt's and Richard's names over and over again."Not happy to see me?" He slowly lowered her to the floor, now filled with a few inches of water. Still mumbling the names, she sat and tried to pull herself away. But her exhausted, numb, shocked body could barely grasp his arm.

"Don't worry. The fire is gone. You're simply in my . . . purgatory after you were killed" All breath left her body.

"Don't you remember getting stabbed?"

Raven felt a subtle, soft pain appear in her chest. Slowly, the pain increased until she felt the need to place her hand over the area. When she did, it landed in something wet. Pulling her hand away, she saw blood. Even more horror washed over her when she was met with a hole in her chest. Her hand latched onto the wounds as the pain continued to increase.

"You were stabbed," Death said, "by your dad." The grin widened into a smile; her body was going into shock.

The wound continued to grow. A breath of pain left Raven, and she looked up at Death. Though she didn't say anything to him, he could tell she was asking him to make it stop.

"The rocks will be gone. Let's go." Death placed his hand on her head, and her body went limp. She fell into the water, but instead of hitting the ground under it, she became fully immersed.

All Raven saw was darkness, and all she could feel was pain and freezing water. On pure instinct alone, she began to swim up even though her body was numb, and the pain in her chest was agonizing.

Her lungs began to hurt from the lack of airflow, and after a few more seconds, she was forced to breathe in. Water infiltrated her body, tightening her lungs so they felt as if they would burst.

Light began to shine through the surface of the water.

Raven's fingers clawed at the water, and her feet kicked against it. Breathing out again, she watched as blood came out of her nose and mouth and surrounded her, adding to the blood coming out of her chest. Just when she felt like she would pass out, she finally broke the surface.